Art of producing wire



May 11, 1943. w. E. LEONARD ART OF PRODUCING WIRE Filed June 6, 1940[men/07':

/%/44/4/ 1 5 LEO/M490,

Patented May 11, 1943 UNITE-D {STATES PATENT OFFICE ART OF PRODUCINGWIRE William E. Leonard, Worcester, Mass., assignor to The AmericanSteel and Wire Company of New Jersey, a corporation of New JerseyApplication June 6, 1940, Serial No. 339,193 2. Claims. (01. 205-21)This invention relates generally to the art of producing wire, but it isparticularly concerned with expediting the production of thoroughlyclean wire or bright annealed wire, from rod.

The customary way to produce thoroughly clean or bright annealed wirefrom rod is to lubricate it with soap and draw it through dies until thedesired reduction in its diameter is obtained. Sometimes the wire islimed but, in all events, when its drawing is completed, this beingknown as dry-drawing, its surface is contaminated with the dry-drawinglubricant to such an extent that it cannot be sold as being thoroughlyclean and if the wire were placed directly in a bright annealing furnaceit could not possibly come out of the furnace with a. bright finish. Toovercome this difhculty it is customary to clean the wire with acidprior to its being sold as thoroughly clean or placed in the brightannealing furnace, this introducing added cost and trouble to theproduction of this article.

According to the present invention, rod, this being a hot rolledproduct, or wire which has been drawn one or more drafts from a rod, islimed, if desired, and is then dry-drawn, the usual soap lubricant beingused. Instead of coiling the wire thus drawn from the rod, or wire, itis immersed in liquid for a sufllcient time to thoroughly wet thedry-drawing lubricant contaminating its surface. At this point thesurface of the wire is fairly clean, but it is far from being thoroughlyclean or so clean as to permit its being bright annealed.

To eliminate the necessity for acid cleaning the wire to completelycleanse its surface, the wire is next given at least one pass through awetdrawing die, or, in other words, the wire is wetdrawn at least oncewith at least suflicient severity to thoroughly strip it of everythingthat might be contaminating its surface. It-is to be understood thatwet-drawing consists in wetting the wire with a slightly acid solutioncontaining a copper or tin salt, the copper or tin being uniformlyplated on the wire and serving, in conjunction with the liquid, tolubricate the wire during its passage through the wet-drawing die.However, the acidity of the wet-drawing solution is very slight and thelatter does not function, merely by reason of its being slightly acid,to clean the wire. This solution may be the liquid mentioned in thepreceding paragraph. The wetdrawn wire can now be sold as thoroughlyclean or placed in a bright annealing furnace so that it comes out ofthe furnace in a satisfactorily bright and clean condition. When sold asunannealed, thoroughly clean wire, it has the attractive appearance ofliquor finished wire but the important thing is that it is thoroughlyclean.

The various steps that have been outlined can be carried outcontinuously. That is to say, the wire leaving its dry-drawing phase andcontinuously traveling, may bepassed repeatedly through a relativelysmall tank containing the wetting liquid which softens the dry-drawinglubricant. Continuously leaving this liquid the wire may go directlythrough the wet-drawing die, the wire being continuously coiled uponleaving this wet-drawing die and the coils of wire so formed transferredto the bright annealing furnace, if desired, or sold as thoroughlyclean, unannealed wire. It is suggested that the wire be coiled, but itis conceivable that a satisfactory continuous bright annealing furnacemay be used. In such cases the wire would be passed continuously throughthe furnace from the wet-drawing die when annealing is desired.

The liquid used to wet the dry-drawing lubricant prior to its beingwet-drawn may be liquor such as is used for wet-drawing, this being, ashas been mentioned, a slightly acid solution of a copper or tin salt. Asuitable solution consists of copper sulphate in water to which is addeda liquor made by iermentating rye mill, the fermentation of this grainproviding the acidity. It sometimes may be necessary to regulate theacidity with very small amounts of sulphuric acid. When such a liquor isused as scouring or wetting medium, it not only thoroughly wets, andpossibly to some extent removes, the dry-drawing lubricant but it alsofunctions to copper plate the wire whereby to condition it for thewetdrawing step.

It is again repeated that this liquor cannot function to completelyremove all of the drydrawing lubricant, as is accomplished by the priorart method ofsoaking the wire for prolonged periods in relatively strongacid solutions or the continuous and substantially instantaneouswetdrawing step of the present invention.

The accompanying drawing illustrates apparatus suitable for carrying outthe various steps that have been described herein, Figure 1 being anelevation of the apparatus while Figure 2 shows a section of a brightannealing furnace.

The drawing shows the end of a continuous wire drawing machine I, whichmay be constructed according to the prior art, provided with a pluralityof dies I preceded in one or more instances by a soap dish l the lattercontaining the dry-drawing lubricant or soap and the wire .therebyduring its passage through the die. It

is to be understood that the wire stock fed the dry-drawing machine I isgenerally in the form of hot rolled rod or wire which is, sometimes,limed.

Upon leaving the dry-drawing, the wire, marked W in the drawing, passesover a sheave 2, the wire being formed into a plurality of loops. bywrapping around a drum 3 and the latter immersing the wire in thewetting or scouring liquor in a tank 4. This liquid may be conventionalwetdrawing liquor as has been previously explained.

Upon leaving the immersing drum 3, the wire, carrying the now thoroughlywetted remains of the dry-drawing lubricant goes through the wetdrawingdie 5 to a draw block 5 which applies the tension to the wire necessaryto carry it from the dry-drawing machine I. The wire is snubbed aboutthe block 6 by a draw-out drum 6" and goes from there to a take-up orcoiler I.

All of the apparatus operates in a continuous fashion and does notnecessitate handling of the wire after initial threading, the rod orwire going continuously through the dry-drawing machine and ending up onthe coiler 1 without being handled by the workmen.

The coils of wire produced by the take-up I may be subsequently placedin a bright annealing furnace I. It is understood, of course, that thebright anneal must be carried out by both heating and cooling the wirecoils in an atmosphere that is suillciently nonoxidizing to preventoxidation of the wires. In the case of the bell-type furnaceillustrated, the coils of wire are placed on a base 8" and covered witha shield 8 which is flooded with the nonoxidizing gas. The furnace 8 isin the form of a bell which may be dropped over the cover l during theheating cycle and removed during the cooling cycle. When cooled tononoxidizing temperatures, the wire coils may be exposed by removing thecover 8, at which time it will be found that the wire has asatisfactorily bright finish which is comparable, if not superior, tothat obtained by acid cleaning the dry-drawn wire in the manner taughtby the prior art.

One of the biggest advantages oi the present invention is its ability tohandle continuously traveling wire moving at a speed as high as isconsistent with the operation of the dry-drawing machine I. When acidcleaning is resorted to instead of the wet-drawing step of the presentinvention, it is necessary to coil the wire leaving the dry-drawingmachine and to keep it immersed in the acid cleaning solution forprolonged periods of time, this slowing production and making troublefor the workmen, the handling of the coils necessarily involving a greatdeal of manual labor.

As previously explained. .the wire may be sold as unannealed, thoroughlyclean wire. In such a case, the furnace l, of course, is not used.

I claim:

. 1. In the art of producing wire, the steps of applying dry. drawinglubricant to wire stock,

drawing the stock to produce wire with its surface contaminated by thedry drawing lubricant,

wetting the wire with a metallic salt to wet the wire during the wetdrawing.

2. In the art of producing wire, the steps of applying dry drawinglubricant to wire stock,

drawing the stock to produce wire with its sur-' face contaminated bythe dry drawing lubricant. wetting the wire with a metallic salt to wetthe dry drawing lubricant contaminating its surface and to plate itssurface with the metal or the salt, and wet drawing the wire whilewetted with the metallic salt to produce wire with its surface clean,the metal plated on the wires surface and the metallic salt solutionserving to lubricate the wire during the wet drawing, the wire beingsubsequently annealed in a nonoxidizingatmosphere to produce brightannealed wire with a satisfactory bright finish.

3. In the art of producing wire, the steps of applying dry drawinglubricant to wire stock,

drawing the stock to produce wire with its surface contaminated by thedry drawing lubricant, wetting the wire with a metallic salt to wet thedry drawing lubricant contaminating its surface and to plate its surfacewith the metal of the salt, and wet drawing the wire while wetted withthe metallic salt to produce wire with its surface clean, the metalplated on the wires surface and the metallic salt solution serving tolubricate the wire during the wet drawing, the named steps being carriedout in succession on a single continuously moving length of wire stocktraveling at a speed consistent with good dry drawing practice.

WELIAM E. LEONARD.

